Barbour won't cede N.H. to Mitt

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Nearing the end of his New Hampshire tour, Haley Barbour made a sales pitch to state Republicans gathered here by saying his likely White House bid would focus on the Granite State.

The Mississippi governor told the crowd of roughly 50 people that he plans to make a decision on a White House bid by the end of the month and that, if he runs, he plans to play hard in the first primary state.

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“Everybody understands that Mitt has this huge lead here and has a house here, but this is going to be a critical state in the November election in 2012,” Barbour said, taking a swipe at likely rival Mitt Romney.

“I’m going to compete in New Hampshire because — whether I win the primary or not — I’m going to try to win New Hampshire in November 2012. Any Republican needs to do the same because the state is very important in that regard,” Barbour said.

Moses, who sat front row for the governor’s 15-minute speech, and Barbour played together on a two-time state high school championship team. A handful of state representatives, as well as conservative activist Ovide Lamontagne were also in attendance.

Pleasantries aside, Barbour dived into a hard-hitting speech that slammed President Barack Obama’s budget pitch before an engaged, standing room only audience at a meet-and-greet sponsored by a Republican women’s group.

“When you see the president repeatedly say publicly, as he did yesterday, that spending on entitlements is unsustainable and then propose to do nothing about it, you can understand why the American people are upset,” he said.

“This is an administration that has a habit of politicizing every subject, and we saw that in spades yesterday, when the president invited Paul Ryan to sit in the front row for his speech yesterday and said the Republican budget was un-American.”

During a wide-ranging question and answer session following his speech, Barbour answered more questions about his recollections of the 1960s civil rights struggle in his hometown, Yazoo City.

“I was asked what was my childhood like. Well, my childhood was great,” Barbour said. “Does that mean everything was perfect in the South? Of course not. We’ve made some real changes in the South that have been a big plus.”

Asked how he planned to address the issue during his likely White House bid, Barbour said he wasn’t worried about it.

“I’m not gonna worry about that. I think the people in the country are looking for plain spoken common sense truth telling,” he said. “They’re tired of happy talk. They want somebody who trusts the public enough to tell them the truth.”

Barbour’s Manchester speech came after a tour of Riley’s Gun Shop in Hooksett. It’s the governor’s first trip to the Granite State this year.